Hi again, guys ... sorry to monopolize the FML today, but my best friend
isn't home, my mother wouldn't understand, so I've got to share my amazement
with you guys again.
 
Let me recap, very quickly.  Sunday (that's 3 days ago), I had Pepper and
Mort, two ferrets.
 
Monday I added Feather and Uno and a ferret-mansion cage.  That's 4 ferrets.
 
Today, since I wrote the fml with the addition of Feather and Uno, the wife
(Joy, is her name) of Dave's previous boss came over with BB.  Are you
counting?  5 ferrets.  I've gone from 2 to 5 in three days.
 
Joy's daughter told her to take BB and find a home for him or drop him at
the pound to be put to sleep.  Joy told me he hardly got fed, was often w/o
water, and that he had started biting.  In fact, she got quite concerned
when I asked to take him out of his cage.
 
He didn't bite me.  Joy couldn't believe it.  She insisted that he bit
everyone.  I've been interacting with him all day, and he hasn't got me yet,
though when I was giving him kisses he almost bit my face.  I'm glad to find
out w/o getting hurt that he'd like to bite my face.  No kisses for him for
a while.  He's taupe colored, like Feather, and very thin, with an awkward
gait due to a hunched back and an angular, kind of sort of ugly face.  Not
an unloveable face, though, just haggard.
 
He's very nervous, and he doesn't quite run--he hops way into the air with a
sideways twist.  His version of the "war dance" or "happy dance" is
interesting.  Joy thought he was going to attack us--they didn't know that
that's how ferrets play.  Grr.  Just about everything scares him, any sudden
movement, anything falling off the coffee table (even if he's the one to
knock it off) and loud noises.
 
Let me tell you about his cage.  He was in a Hagen ferret starter cage.  Has
anyone seen these?  I've been after PetCo here to get rid of them, but they
still stock them.  This is a cage that is very suitable for guinea pigs, and
not suitable for ferrets, especially ferrets that don't get any run time.
He had ceder chips and no litter box.  He had a tiny hammock, the smallest
hammock I've ever seen.  There was room in the cage for him to be either on
the floor or on the hammock--that's it.  The cage reeked of pee.  He doesn't,
though, for some odd reason.  I think he walks funny because he never got to
run or walk inside that little cage, just hop.  He's quickly learning,
already, to run in a straight line, but if anything startles him he does his
twist/jump.  I don't think his hunched back is a permanent condition--I
think it's just the posture his muscles have grown accustomed to.
 
His food dish contained bird seed and hamster food.  Ugh.
 
I *had* to take him in, even though Dave is still the tiniest bit miffed
about the other two newbies.  He was here when BB came, though, and he said,
"Hell, we've got four, like one more is going to be real noticeable." So
BB's here to stay.  All the ferrets accepted him, tho he didn't seem to
quite know what to think of it all.  He dived right into the food dish, with
supreme gusto.  And so far he really hasn't been able to settle down for a
nap--any little noise or even me just peeking in wakes him right up.
 
The others have all been piled in one hammock, and there's no room for
another there, so they've kindly altered their sleeping habits!  Two are in
the hammock, and two are curled in a blankie on the same level, leaving BB
to choose either place.  Sigh, my ferrets are so sweet.
 
Enough for now, I've got to shut my fingers up and get my butt to work!
 
Later,
 
--Sheri
[Posted in FML issue 1998]